 I'm Avi Arditi from VOA Learning English. Welcome to this special Election Day edition of our Skype call-in show. It is Election Day where Americans are electing a president, the entire House of Representatives, you see the capital building behind me, and a third of the Senate, plus state and local elections. My colleague Carolyn Presudi from VOA News, who's normally with me when we do these shows in the studio, is actually in Boston covering the Romney campaign. Hi, Carolyn. Hello, Avi, and hello to our Skype contacts from all over the world. I am in Boston, which is in the state of Massachusetts. We are in South Boston at the convention center. You can see behind me, I am currently in the press filing center at about 7 o'clock our time, which is about five and a half hours from right now. This room will be filled with media of all types, radio, TV, internet reporters, and what they'll be doing is filing their stories for the outcome of Election Night. And as you can see right now, we have all kinds of huge monitors behind us. This one is on Fox News and this one is on CNN. In this very building is where Governor Mitt Romney will arrive once the polls close and once the election starts to firm up and it appears that we might get a winner. He will come to this building and he will go to the ballroom where he will address all of his supporters who are gathered here tonight. Either it will be a concession speech if he loses or it will be a victory speech if he wins and he's named the next president of the United States. So you can tell here in Boston is where all the Republicans are gathered in hopes that their candidate wins the presidency tonight. So Abby, I know you have a lot of questions from our viewers all over the world. Let's get started on that. And first I should point out that your colleague Dan Robinson is covering President Obama from the Obama campaign headquarters in Chicago. Probably doing the same thing right now and getting ready for election night returns. Carolyn, I understand we have a caller on Skype from Tunisia. Hi. Great. You're on with Abby and Carolyn. Hi, can you hear us? Yes, good. I'm guessing from Tunisia. From Tunisia. Hi, welcome. What's your question about the election? Are you following the news? I'm just astonished because it's a very great moment. So it's one of the best days in America. So we appreciate there is many crowds of people. They celebrate maybe Obama. I don't hear yet who won. But I think it's Obama. I am clear. I'm right. Well, we will know. I mean, I'm going to hold up some of the newspapers. You can hold them up to the camera here. You'll see some of the headlines like on the Wall Street Journal, Decision Day in America. It's Decision Day from USA Today. New York Times state by state battle for presidency goes to voters. One more Washington Post. Now it's the voters turn to speak. So we will find out. It could be as soon as tonight. We will know the winner potentially. Or it could take a little longer. Sometimes it takes longer to count the votes. And that's what's so unique about the American way that we handle our elections. It truly is suspenseful until the very last vote is counted tonight and all the different states call in their results. And we find out with the electoral votes who end up winning the presidency. Very different than maybe other countries where you're calling from. Of course, Tunisia with your changes. You have a very different way of your political methods too. Certainly. So now, Caroline, actually why don't you mention the electoral vote. Do you want to explain a little bit about how a president is elected? This is one thing that our constitution sets down. It is not a popular vote that wins the presidency. So say if you live in Maine, one of our northern states, if you live in California, our western state, if most of the people in one state vote for a candidate, then that state's electoral votes go into add up to see who will become the president. So let me give you some concrete examples. You know, we have what are called battleground states and they each have a group of electoral votes. And it doesn't matter if you would take the entire population of the United States and if you have more people vote for candidate A and less people vote for candidate B, it might not mean that candidate A would win. Instead, it depends on individual states. And those states that are rich with electoral votes, then that entire state would go towards the vote for that candidate. I know it's a bit confusing and it's actually, you'll probably understand it better when you see the different readings from the state. How many electoral votes from each state go toward winning the presidency like Florida? That's our state to the south. Has 29 votes. Ohio has 18. Virginia has 13. Wisconsin has 10. Colorado has 9. All those states that I mentioned in a couple more are called battleground states. They're swing states. Sometimes they vote Republican. Sometimes they vote Democrat. But they're very important to find out who becomes the president. And we should point out that there's the relationship between the population and the electoral vote that each state has at least three electoral votes, two, one for each senator, and each state has two senators, and every state has at least one member of the House of Representatives. And the number of electoral votes equals the number of members of a state's congressional delegation. So California, the most populous state, is going to have many more electoral votes. And what is it? 48 of the 50 states, if you win the popular vote, you win all of the electoral votes. And there are two states where they're divided based on the congressional districts. It's a little confusing, but it has to do with connected to population. Okay, and Caroline, we have a caller now on Skype from Algeria. Hi. Thanks for calling. I have heard through my activity on Facebook that Obama is going to make it lawful for gays to marry. And I wonder if this will affect negatively or positively the American society. I think she's asking if it reflects negatively or positively on America's population. Is that right? Because Obama was the first sitting president to come out publicly in favor of same-sex marriage. Whether or not it reflects negatively or positively might not be exactly what you mean, but it certainly shows you how this country has evolved and how we've changed. I really doubt if this would have happened 20, 50 years ago, but it's just that this country has become more inclusive. I mean, even the fact that we have an African American as president and we have someone running for the presidency as a Mormon, those are both history-making events. Never has that happened in our history. So I think that, again, gives you the idea of this country becoming more inclusive in its views. Well, we should point out that there are some states, I believe a few states, have ballot measures dealing with this question of same-sex marriage. And a number of states have passed state constitutional amendments barring same-sex marriage. There have been other movements to legalize it. And Carolyn, as you point out, the president did speak out in favor of it. And the first president to do that. But it's hard to know what effect that might have on the election or on, as you say, the image of the U.S. So now... I heard one political analyst say Americans are very much concerned about the economy and they're so focused in this election that that's going to turn the election. That's what I hear. And the other causes, this election cycle, have kind of fallen by the wayside that people are so focused on unemployment, economy, deficit, everything dealing with numbers. I know, Carolyn, this morning it was... We waited... My wife and I waited 45 minutes in line. It was six in the morning to vote. There was already a long line at our polling station and it was freezing. But people wanted to, you know, to vote. And Virginia is one of those swing states that you referred to earlier, could go either way, could have an important effect on the election. And it's one of the states where there'll be early returns coming in when the polls close at seven o'clock tonight, one of the first states that might be reporting the results. That's definitely right, Avi. And also there's another aspect of our election which not too many people might know about. Because I'm here in Boston, I can't vote in Boston because I don't live in Boston. So I did early voting. And Friday I went to a polling place in my county and went ahead and voted and there was a long line then. I waited an hour and a half on Friday night to vote. But it was cut off at 9 p.m. Nobody could do any early voting after 9 p.m. and then everyone has to wait until Tuesday to vote. But in my state, Maryland, one million people already voted before Election Day. And that's something new, Avi, when you and I were young, nobody could early vote. You voted by absentee, but you couldn't go in person to a polling place to vote. So that's another idea of how we're changing with the times, people's schedules, people traveling all over the world, as many Americans to be able to vote as possible. Well, and the interesting thing about the early voting this year, you brought that up, the President Obama actually became, you know, broke with tradition and voted early, voted, was it October 25th, I believe. He was visiting, he was in his hometown of Chicago and he went to vote. I believe you're with the Romneys. The Romneys voted this morning, is that right? They voted this morning in Belmont, Massachusetts, which is a suburb of Boston. It's about 25 minutes from here and we spent some time in Belmont yesterday. It's a very historical town, about 25,000 people live there. And the Romneys raised their five sons in Belmont at a big sprawling house. They had seven bedrooms, six and a half baths, and they sold that home and they, what's called, downsized. So they purchased a smaller home a couple of years ago that just has two bedrooms. But that house sold for $3.5 million, the one in Belmont that they raised their boys, where they raised their boys. Looking at some of the comments that we've gotten on the VOA Learning English page on Facebook where we asked our audience who they think should win and Mohammed Mahmoud Farah wrote that he thinks President Obama will win and he said, here are the reasons. Since Obama came to the White House, the U.S. economy has recovered. Two, he managed to withdraw troops from Iraq and three, he still has a lot of supporters. Now let's see another one from George Castellanos wrote that, quote, obviously President Barack Obama will continue in the White House as president for the simple reason that Mr. Romney, and this person wrote, looks like an unpeaceful man and the world needs peace defenders. I guess it's time to think about international peace. Now, Suvik wrote that Mitt Romney will win because, quote, he has been very clear on how to make America more attractive for mid-sized and small businesses that create most of the jobs in the U.S. It's about jobs and the economy more than anything. That's the point you made earlier, Carolyn, and he said, this person says, quote, he'll also fix the broken immigration system and he's a confident guy. So that's what Suvik wrote. We have a, you can add your comments at the VOA Learning English page on Facebook. We have Mohamed from Algeria, another caller from Algeria on Skype. Mohamed, go ahead. Hi, Mohamed. Good morning. Hi. Yes. I guess you want me to comment about the U.S. election. Please, what's on your mind? What do you think will win? I'm not a specialist, but I guess he will be Obama. Why do you say that, Mohamed? Why? Is it for economic reasons, for foreign policy reasons? Why do you think? Maybe for the second one, foreign policy. Foreign policy. It seems that Obama is more peaceful than Romney. I think. Thanks, Mohamed. Well, Carolyn, so you've got a long night ahead, right? You've got... We do, but exciting. Yeah, that's right. Your day has... It's always exciting on election night. It can turn out anyway. It's fascinating, and especially this election is so very close. When you look at the polls, they are still neck and neck. If you talk to one member of one campaign, they'll call it one way. Somebody else will call it another way. Who knows what's going to happen tonight? It should be an exciting night, Avi. And I have to tell you, when we speak to our viewers from all over the world, it's fascinating to me how tuned into our election they are. Because as you and I both know, there are some Americans that aren't as well read on our election as our viewers are. So it's fascinating to hear from them. Well, great. Well, Carolyn, why don't we wrap up here? And I know you've got... Your day is just beginning. You're going to be covering Governor Romney tonight, whether it's an acceptance speech or a concession speech. We'll find out. That's right. And as you said earlier, for complete election coverage and the latest results, go to voanews.com. And in the days ahead, we'll be following all the results with Carolyn Pursuti in Boston with the Romney campaign. I'm Avi Ardidi from VOA Learning English. Take care. Thanks, everybody.